Smiles + Laughter = Happiness

Things. Just more golden ramble of life now.

Autumn means persimmons. I have an abundance of gifted persimmons. So I made persimmon cookies. They taste like thanksgiving. They are delicious. I made more with the boy (he calls himself “cooking man”). He thinks they are delicious too. I’m happy about that.

I caught a cold. My nose is super blocked, and no matter how hard or how much I blow it, it still somehow manages to stay blocked and runny all at the same time. I can’t take any time off work so I am hanging out for Wednesday because it’s a public holiday and I can sleep in and wear trackpants and a hoodie. I also have to make more cookies for Wednesday’s Thanksgiving lunch with friends. There is no way I am missing Thanksgiving lunch where there is a real turkey. Do you realise how rare this is in Japan?!

New stationary and pens make me want to study more. I found some really cute new pens and all I want to do is write with them! I think it’s time for a pencil case clean out.

Sitting on the couch eating just baked cookies and chocolate with the boy is probably the best way I could have spent my Sunday afternoon.

I love painting my fingernails. I generally can’t have them painted when I am teaching at schools, but I painted them on the weekend and “forgot” to remove it last night oh well. I heart this colour. I posted about it over a year ago when I got it (a present from my lovely friend Miss Bax) and I still love it. Now the weather is changing and the days are getting gloomier and cold it’s fun to look at my bright super fun nails. They make me smile.

Scarves are amazing. I lost my favourite at last weekend somewhere before the Boyz II Men concert. My new purple one is my favourite substitute. It’s big and cosy and warm and it’s looks good with my mostly all black wardrobe. Watch this video on 25 different ways to wear a scarf!

Not my scarf, but BOYZ II MEN!!

Taking my washing to the coin laundry to dry is actually fun! I drank a caramel macchiato and read Marie Claire while I waited for it to dry. Surprisingly I really enjoyed it!

And one more pic for luck!



Poice.

ex oh ex oh

Chola tales...

The last time I went to Tokyo I brought a long black wig for my Halloween costume thinking that I was totally going as Amy Winehouse.

I week before Halloween I was browsing over the blogs I regularly read and on one of them they had made a comment about Selena Gomez and her new Chola alter ego....I had no idea what a Chola was...once I saw a pic I knew, but I never knew they were called Cholas...talk about a sheltered NZ life!

SO when I saw the pic I googled and knew straight away that I had to be a Chola for Halloween.

I watched a tutorial on YouTube about how to conceal your eyebrows...that failed...

Got my fake nails ready...they were the key to the outfit I think (and I put them on, on the train to the city...straight baller right there!! It was soooo hard!)

Walking to the train station almost all in my costume!

LIL BLANCA

A Chola Halloween.

I was totally inspired by Gwen Stefani's interpretation of a Chola in here Luxurious video. I remember seeing that clip when it first came out and getting my nails done like her!

Halloween was a really fun night...and we were in the taxi on our way home by 2am. Not a bad effort!!

Oh and as you can see I kept my real eyebrows!

Poice of pumpkin pie.
ex oh ex oh

the sands of time...

Another year older. I don't feel any older, but I know that I am.

In this past year I have grown as a person, I've learned things about myself I never knew existed. I'm constantly learning and refining. I think I have learned more about myself in this past year then any other time in my life. I'm beginning to understand who I am and what I want.

This next year will be great. I know it will be because I believe it will be. I will use all that I have learned and more to create a great year. Happiness, love, laughter, light and positivity.

Tom boo boo wanted to go shoe shopping...UM HELLO?! I love shoes! So we spent my actual birthday afternoon/evening shoe shopping and eating Chinese food!

Birthday light

Birthday Starbucks.

Birthday Chinese.

Some pics from my low key classy Kardashian birthday dinner bash! (I think that's what the title of my facebook invitation was....?!) Spent with my lovely friends at my ex-favourite restaurant.

ladies shot.

Scorpios.

making a wish!



Mai?!



too happy!!

 

Birthday Love from my students!

Peace (of Birthday Cake!)
Happiness, love, laughter, light and positivity!

There's nothing you can't do

A few weeks ago we went on another dinner trip, a mission to try somewhere new after our successful adventure to Jerk Kitchen.

We got out our touristy maps and everything...

*This is probably a good time to introduce The Bitter Melon Man (or The BMM). He joined LL and I on our culinary adventure.

After careful consultation of the maps on the tram, we decided upon and Italian place..

Porta Porte

We ended up at...



NEW YORK

I think the promise of real NewYork cheesecake was what swayed us back in the direction (like 5 metres down the street!) of New York.

The BMM pondering.

Happy faces.

omoishiroi faces.



From left: The BMM's beer (organic I think), my Moscow mule (you know it!) & LL tried an Amaretto Ginger (SO good!!)



Pizza & Salad.Clutch.



New York Cheesecake & Brownie. Ah.may.zing.



BOOM

Dinner at New York is always good.

Spending time with two thirds of my advice trio is always good too. Heart you both.

Peace & the upper east side.

Getting Jerk on it..

Shiiizzzaaammmm, two posts in one day! Looks like I'm making up for lost time!

A few weeks ago, me and LL decided to head into the city for dinner. On the train ride into the city we were thinking about places to go and eat, but nothing we came up with really tickled our fancy...and well we always just go to our same old favourite places.

Anyway, after an unsuccessful attempt to find somewhere while searching goolge on my iphone we went into the ticket office once we got to the station and grabbed an English map of fun things to do in the city -we really, really looked like tourists, I almost felt like Joey from friends when he "gets into" the map when they are in London...

So we have a quick skim over the little blurbs written about some of the restaurants they recommended, and decide to make our decision once on the tram. We decide on Jamaican. The restaurant was a little out of the way (but it really wasn't!) just not our usual neck of the woods, we get off the tram a stop too early, so we casually wander down the street (with my google maps open on my iphone as well as the actual map) and are pleasantly surprised at how many funky little cafes, wine bars and restaurants there are in this part of town (again not actually that far away from our usual). So we eventually find Jerk Kitchen.

obligatory posey shots!

then we got gangster on it...hot

had to get the jerk chicken and then the jerk pork

and gratin and shrimp fried rice

So overall it was really, really good! We'll be back. It's nice to have a new place to add to our list of favs. Oh the drinks were ah.may.zing too! I forgot to take a pic, but daymn they were delish! LL got a rum and coke and I got my standard Moscow Mule, pretty laid back but gosh darn he made them taste amazing - FO REAL!

ex.oh.ex.oh
Jah, one love, poice.

Nigella eat your heart out

My last post was a little deep, you feel? So I'm gonna keep it easy, breezy, beautiful cover girl.

Had a few hours up my black cardigan-ed sleeve this afternoon, so I got busy and got things done.

The weather is starting to get cooler, but when the sun is out it's delightful. Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect. So I came home, put on my bball shorts and a singlet and opened all the windows and doors and put on about a million loads of washing.

I have an obsession for linen spray right now (I saw a friend use it, and it reminded me that the last time I used it was pre-Japan) since I've been sick, it's nice to hop into bed and it smells like clean linen. I used to make my own with eucalyptus oil and water, but it's a little strong. So anyway I randomly found some at Muji (while shopping for curry & pretzel snacks) and boom whaddaya know...I'm obsessed.

So I changed all the linen on my bed, put blankets, duvets & pillows (ok so for a small Japanese bed I have A LOT of stuff on it!) outside in the sun to air (of course with a good spraying of my new linen spray), did 3 loads of washing - although I feel like I did like 10 on the weekend?! Did the dishes, vacuumed and mopped the floors, dinner is pretty much ready to throw together when I get home later from the gym tonight, I mended the wires from two bras (Japanese washing machines kill bras!) and now I think I feel like baking a cake.

I feel like such a domestic goddess right now, I just need to go and pick up with kids from where ever they would be if I had any, um let's say rugby (or basketball) practice and ballet? and NO I would not be driving a people mover or a mini van. And wait for my husband (again if I had one!) to come home so I could put dinner on the table. uuummm yeah ok....moving on!

Fresh fruit in Japan is crazy expensive so I found these bags of frozen mango bits and now it's safe to say I'm addicted! So now all my work is done, I'm chilling on the couch with some mango watching one of my new shows Nothing Trivial (an NZ show), waiting for my other shows to download (Happy Endings, New Girl, Glee, Modern Family, Community, The Big Bang Theory & Desperate Housewives) while surfing the interwebs (!) for new blogs to read, making a new running playlist and trying not to drink too much coke before I head to the gym!

Sugar, spice and all things nice.
ex.oh.ex.oh
poice

hearts, on my sleeve..

I've been a little M.I.A (you like what i did there?) lately, well actually a whole month plus some change...various reasons, some I may divulge some I may not..


So I've been meaning to write honestly I have, I have started about four different posts in my blog journal (yeah I write them by hand first...something about writing things by hand makes me happy) but I haven't been able to finish them - lack of words, me being a perfectionist and not being happy with the way I'm writing them, not knowing how to pull back and edit some of what I've written...but I'm committed to being a little more into it.
So like usual, I'll just ramble and pull bits and pieces from each of the posts that I have started and hopefully it will turn into a great big amazingly rambly piece of blogging gold.

It's always all gold!
Things that I heart...
i heart getting butterflies.

i heart not being able to hide my big smiles

i heart random thoughts that make me smile when jump into my head at random times when I'm least expecting it

i heart flowers and how they smell

i heart coffee

i heart holding hands

i heart kisses

i heart my new l'occitane shampoo and conditioner

i heart my new forever 21 skinny jeans i bought online (MAJAH WIN!!)

i heart ramen

i heart finding ah.may.zing songs and playing them over and over in my car

I'm learning how to be positive - I should say I'm learning how to be positive all the time, a lot of the time I let negativity creep in and fill my head with thoughts that are damaging to me, my self esteem and my confidence - it also doesn't make me an awesome person to be around sometimes. So I'm really making an effort to work on it.
My main focus right now is body positivity. So before the "Majah Camping Trip '11" I went on a 2 week salad and redbull only diet. Yes. there was a boy involved. For me when I am thinner I feel sexier and more in control. I am working on this - i.e. not needed to be thin to feel sexy and in control. turns out my little 2 week diet craze was not pointless (coz it worked) but the boy didn't care about how not thin I was, that I didn't have an amazingly sculpted body (like he does!), he saw "me". and he had been seeing "me" prior to the "Majah Camping Trip '11". So I'm learning to be confident in who I am now, and not waiting until I reach that "perfect" weight where I will be happy. I am also learning that I don't need to change who I am for someone else, because there are people who like me for who I am now. I can't pretend that the boys "I like you for you" attitude didn't boost my confidence, coz it did on a MAJAH level. And that was what I needed. It's been too long. It's always nice to get compliments full stop. But I need to remember that I am doing it for me.
That's enough of the deep stuff, I still have 3 more half written posts that I need do...

This is what I've been doing for the last month....

watching my kids at sports day..

3rd grade pyramids..

Soccer team (the boy in the yellow is my favourite student)

faces.

dancing students..

festa de rama reggae festival

MAJAH Camping Trip '11 sunrise

learning to braid...i totally will be able to braid my future caramel children's hair!

Getting busy on some jerk with lovely LL

Impromptu night out - best night in a loooong time!

Tonga won the rugby..the Tongan ninja celebrated in Nagarekawa..

Graffiti obsession

trying out a new one..

ohhh hhheeeyyy Tokyo sunshine

heading back to Tokyo...with my trusty starbucks for the shinkansen ride

Forever 21 shopping with Gerry Hillson!

Whanau haka time

Pukanas (i think) with Maui while looking for monkeys!

Beachy midweek lunch date

GO CARPS! My first baseball game!

Leaving no room for excuses...learning Japanese!

That's all for my life right now.

Trying to be more on top of this blogging business...it's my birthday and Halloween soon, so expect some outfits posts...about time i know!!

Peace, love, light & positive vibrations.